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There Is a Looming Teacher Shortage Epidemic

The U.S. is experiencing a significant decrease in its ability to fill the current annual demand for teachers in school districts across the country.

If this trend continues, America will be dealing with a 100,000 teacher per year shortfall by the year 2025. This sobering conclusion was made in a recently completed study by the Learning Policy Institute (LPI). The LPI is a workshop, which was spearheaded by Linda Darling-Hammond.

Darling-Hammond is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She is also a co-author of the report, which summarized the recent LPI study on the looming epidemic of a teacher shortage. This study’s report was published on this past Thursday (September 15th).

“Based on the evidence available, [this study’s] authors identify four main factors that are driving the emerging teacher shortage,” wrote Darling-Hammond and others in the LPI report. “A decline in teacher preparation enrollments, district efforts to return to pre-recession pupil-teacher ratios, increasing student enrollment, and high teacher attrition,” they also wrote.

The dwindling prioritization of teachers by the state-run education policy makers in America is a main driver of the current teacher shortage. There is tremendous pressure being place on public school teachers to increase student scores on state-issued standardized tests.

Also, the low starting pay for public school teachers in America often leads undergraduates toward other more lucrative fields of study. In addition to conducting studys, which assess the current teacher shortage, the LPI is also working on finding solutions to solve the problem and avert future adversities.

“The LPI offers a number of recommendations for addressing teacher shortages, like creating competitive compensation packages, forgivable loans and scholarships, and establishing teacher residencies in urban and rural districts,” wrote the authors of the recent LPI study.

This suggestion has been widely expressed in the past by numerous teacher advocacy groups across America.